Best known for its multi-sport backpacks and hydration packs, USWE has entered the bikepacking world with a complete lineup of waterproof and water-resistant bike bags. Check out the new USWE Bikepacking Bags here... The post The New USWE Bikepacking Bag Line Drops Today appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

Is the Campagnolo premium worth it in 2024? Luckily we've got our hands on a bike featuring the all-new power meter, Super Record groupset and Bora Ultra WTO wheels to judge for ourselves

The 2024 Itzulia Basque Country was brought to a terrifying stop on Thursday afternoon as a number of riders in the peloton crashed hard into a concrete ditch on a pacey descent.Whilst the likes of Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic were forced to abandon, one of those who looked worst affected was t...

At the top end of their Gravity Flat lineup, the Shimano GF6 is a flat-pedal shoe for demanding terrain and trails. It features a synthetic leather upper, their new ULTREAD GF outsole, and an improved fit. We’ve been testing a pair for more than 1,500 miles on the rough and tumble trails around Oaxaca, Mexico, for this full review... The post Shimano GF6 Review appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

Despite the council’s report showing a reduction in traffic volume and speeds due to the LTN, campaigners say that the decision to remove it was taken before even the report was published

Cyclist Hunt modernises its Carbon Disc range with wider rim and ratchet freehub Hunt has updated its Carbon Disc wheelset range with a new rim profile which increases internal rim width to 22mm. It has also swapped in a ratchet freehub with 10 degrees of engagement for the predecessor Carbon Aero Disc wheelset’s pawl freehub.  There are 30mm, 40mm and 50mm rim depths available, with claimed wheelset weights of 1,408g, 1,433g and 1,464g and prices of £779, £789 and £799. Related Posts Hutchinson’s new Blackbird tyre is fastest and most durable race tyre to date Hooked vs hookless rims: Pros, cons and which is right for you Best road bike tyres 2024: 10 of the best tyres for all occasions Best tubeless road tyres 2024: Cyclist’s guide to road bike tubeless tyres (video) Tubed and tubeless compatibility Hunt says that its upgrades to the Carbon Disc wheelset range are designed to increase versatility and capability, reduce weight and improve acceleration and aerodynamics. Tyre compatibility is from 28mm up to 50mm in width and Hunt says that, although designed for road use, the wheels are suitable for gravel riding too. The brand has wind-tunnel-tested the new wheels at the GST WindKanal facility in Germany and claims an 8 watt aero advantage over a 25mm deep alloy wheelset. It says that the fastest wheelsets, such as Hunt’s own SUB50 Limitless Aero Disc wheelset and the Enve SES 4.5 wheelset are only around 4 watts more aero when fitted with 28mm tyres. Although the new rims, at 22mm internal width, are only 1mm wider than their predecessors, Hunt claims that this makes for a wider tyre, improves the profile and lowers rolling resistance, and also improves cornering and dampens road vibrations better. Hunt has retained a hooked rim profile, rather than changing to a hookless bead design. It says that this allows the upgraded wheels to be run with a wider range of tubeless tyres as well as with inner tubes. If you do want to run tubeless, the wheels come pre-taped and with tubeless valves supplied. All three wheelset depths are laced two-cross with 24 Pillar PSR triple butted J-bend spokes front and rear, with the rear wheel spokes having a larger 1.6mm central butting diameter than the 1.5mm of those in the front wheel, to improve power transfer. Hunt has replaced its pawl-based freehub in the previous generation wheels with its latest H_Ratchet SGL single-sided ratchet freehub, which has 36 points of engagement for a 10-degree engagement angle. It claims a lower weight from the smaller freehub shell and improved durability from the ratchet’s larger engagement surface. Wheelset specs and prices All three depths of the new generation Hunt Carbon Disc wheelset have the same 22mm internal/30mm external rim width. Hunt sells direct from its West Sussex and Boulder, Colorado warehouses, to which it’s about to add a third location in Dresden, Germany. There’s immediate availability. Hunt 30 Carbon Disc   Claimed wheelset weight: 1,408g  Price:  £779 | $979 | €979  Hunt 40 Carbon Disc   Claimed wheelset weight: 1,433g  Price:  £789 | $989 | €989   Hunt 50 Carbon Disc   Claimed wheelset weight: 1,464g Price: £799 | $999 | €999 The post Hunt modernises its Carbon Disc range with wider rim and ratchet freehub appeared first on Cyclist.

Louis Meintjes took the victory on stage 4 of the Itzulia Basque Country 2024, although the South African understandably had mixed emotions post-stage after the race was neutralised following a massive crash that saw the likes of Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic among others caugh...

Just released, the new Zpacks Free Zip 2P Freestanding Tent is the brand's latest dedicated freestanding shelter. It boasts a Dyneema Composite construction, includes lightweight carbon poles, and weighs under two pounds. Find everything you need to know here... The post The New Zpacks Free Zip 2P Freestanding Tent Weighs Under Two Pounds appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

The most exciting weekend of the cycling year is almost upon us, so we chat all things Roubaix with two of the race’s past and present stars, while an explorer-cum-ultra cyclist discusses his latest record attempt

Cyclist Classic climb: Vallter 2000, the climb that sounds like a rollercoaster in a 1980s theme park Need a clue as to the Vallter 2000’s location? Say it like a long-pole track and field athlete. Still struggling? You will definitely get there if you’re a fan of the first Spanish WorldTour race of the season. Only don’t call this climb Spanish. Sure, it’s in Spain, but to anyone local the Vallter is categorically in Catalunya. Its name is Catalan for ‘valley’ after all. Related Posts Classic climb: Rocacorba, the most celebrated climb never used in a pro race Big Ride: Girona, city of stars Classic climb: Plateau de Beille, the Tour summit finish that always delivers Said valley is in fact the Parc Natural de les Capçaleres del Ter i el Freser – obviously – and as a landscape it is gallery-worthy. But this isn’t the Catalunya of Dalí or Picasso. The idyllic village of Setcases, positioned right at the entrance to the climb, offers your last chance to top up your bidons.Patrik Lundin / Cyclist Set high in the Pyrenees less than a mile from the French frontier, here is the work of a pair of creatives that spans millennia, the rivers Ter and Freser, who inch by glacially slow inch have sculpted this terrain into being. High anticipation Despite making its debut in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya back in 1986 (this is the first Spanish WorldTour race of the season, in case you were wondering), it is only in the last decade that the Vallter 2000 has found its way into regular rotation. The road surface isn’t as rough and ready as it looks, but it is just as steep.Patrik Lundin / Cyclist The Andalusian, Juan Fernández, was first to break the tape in 1986; Swiss roller Tony Rominger did it next in 1992. It then took more than 20 years for the Volta to return to this northern outcrop, but since then it has never really left, visiting every other year since 2013. For the pub quizzers out there, Adam Yates remains the only rider to have taken more than a single victory on this climb, and there are bonus points for knowing that last year he, along with Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel, was denied by Giulio Ciccone. If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen. Vallter 2000 is very literally on Strava.Patrik Lundin / Cyclist Remco still took the KoM that day – one among the 62 pages of Strava trophies kept in the Belgian’s virtual cabinet. Whether or not it mattered much to him one can only guess, but the local tourist board was evidently delighted, granting real-life road rights over the segment’s start and finish lines: just outside the village of Setcases lies a band of tangelo-painted tarmac inscribed with the words ‘Strava start segment’. As your computer bleeps in unison with the start, you realise you’re already at 1,300m elevation. The final turns, starting at 2,000m altitude, are worth the effort for the view you get of them at the top.Patrik Lundin / Cyclist Make the most of the plentiful oxygen ‘down here’ because you have only about 2.5km before you hit 1,500m, or what atmospheric scientists call the zone of ‘high altitude’. Don’t expect this first stretch to be easy, but with the gradient remaining well below 10% you shouldn’t find yourself struggling. The road, now only just wide enough for two vehicles travelling in opposite directions to not touch mirrors, snakes gently round to the northwest. There are no tight turns but nor is it straight enough to frustrate. You’ll feel you’re making progress as the view over your handlebars changes rewardingly with every stroke. The surface is pale and imperfect, but it is not sufficiently scarred as to be uncomfortable. Getting closer Set alongside the Ter river that has shaped this landscape, Setcases is a year-round magnet for active tourists of the hiking, skiing and biking variety.Patrik Lundin / Cyclist By the mid-climb squiggle the walls haven’t literally closed in, but this is where the flora is at its most dense, drawing the darkness near. The road pitches up towards the teens before you even hit the hairpins, which enable the route to negotiate a near sheer wall of slate. As it rises, the road narrows even more to seem steeper than it really is. The brown cows of Catalunya are herded to high ground to graze during the heat of summer and brought back down again in early autumn.Patrik Lundin / Cyclist Keep your eyes peeled for cattle and give them as wide a berth as possible. Ranging somewhat freely, the longhorns are herded to higher, cooler ground during the summer months before being brought back down in early October. The arrhythmic clunk of their bells warns rather than encourages your progress. These five switchbacks will eat the better part of 300m out of the remaining elevation. As you rise above the treeline and the gradient relents, you would feel freer to breathe were it not for how noticeably thinner the air feels. Patrik Lundin / Cyclist You’re more than halfway there. The valley has opened out like the pages of an ancient atlas. Pins aplenty Mammals are fewer and further between at this altitude – you’re more likely to spot an imaginatively named Pyrenean rock lizard sunning itself on the limestone crag. The valley looms large as it opens out and snakes up to snow country for the final stretch.Patrik Lundin / Cyclist Take advantage of the next two kilometres of relaxed incline – at times falling below 2% – to invest more in easily spinning legs than heaving lungs. The road steepens gradually before you reach the first of six car parks and, of rather more interest, the second set of hairpins poised to take you to the top. Eleven in all, each hairpin is labelled with the name of a different WorldTour race. All the Grand Tours are there, along with every Monument except one. Quite why Milan-San Remo has been denied a bend is a mystery, but both Strade Bianche and the San Sebastian Classic make the cut ahead of La Primavera. At Il Lombardia you pass a large circle with an H in the middle, a reminder of the Vallter 2000’s altitude. You’ve arrived at the Vallter 2000 Estació d’esquí ski (and increasingly) cycling station.Patrik Lundin / Cyclist The final bend, less a switchback than a fast right-hander, comes after 400 give-it-everything metres and is named in honour of – what else – the Volta a Catalunya. Your arrival, into another car park, is inauspicious, but it’s about the journey not the destination. Take a look back down the mountain; the Vallter 2000 is truly the work of a master. The post Classic climb: Vallter 2000, the climb that sounds like a rollercoaster in a 1980s theme park appeared first on Cyclist.